The boys were troopers. They had climbed, explored and conquered a 9 mile hike in the wilderness. They contorted into the tiny crevasses of caves and braved winds and sun on a broad desert dune. And on the 7th day of our vacation, our last chance to see our do things, they were done.
They weren't cranky. They didn't fight. They just wanted to lay around and do nothing. We were tempted to just drive the whole way back and give ourselves an extra day at home. But instead, we ambled through the desert in our RV. Stopping to look at trains and camped at an easy to access campground in Bakersfield along ac river. Home was close. The day was easy.
We didn't even talk much. There was just a lot of spacing out, listening to an audiobook and short walks in pretty places.
Rest and play are not the same thing.
In our busy world, I think we tend to divide time into work and personal. Work being the thing we do and personal being rest and self care. This division of time, however, robs us of the variety of activities that are essential to a full life.
Rest is the time of doing nothing. The sitting on the couch and staring at the ceiling instead of getting the load of laundry in. Laying in a hammock and feeling the sun and having very few thoughts. Rest is still and unplugged.
Today, I watched my kids have true sabbath. Six days of pushing and running and playing and they were full. Like after Thanksgiving. They were satisfied.
And God looked at creation, and it was good.
I think rest comes naturally after the completion of another thing -- a meal, a report, a hike, a day of teaching. There is a sigh and the feeling of... and it was good.
I think I'm going to try to look at time differently. More categories to more fully embrace my humanity and the humanity in my children. Work, play, creation, connection, learning, imagination, self care, and Rest. I wonder how this might change the way I plan our weeks.
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